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| The Locale: Almost entirely the South—hence the title of the book. 27 states have abandoned school corporal punishment, as have dozens of advanced countries around the world with great success. Additionally, in many of the other “paddling states,” more than half the districts have abandoned it. Some paddling states, like Mississippi and Alabama, paddle at or near double-digit percentages of children. The low hitting “paddling states,” in contrast, paddle only a fraction of one percent of students, as nearly every district has individually eliminated it. Almost all paddling occurs in a handful of states, all in the South. | | There was a study in the 80s that showed students in the South were 4000 times as likely to be paddled as students elsewhere. If anything that percentage has increased since then, as more states rid themselves of this form of child abuse. | | There are, however, abusive incidents in many states. Private school paddling is allowed in others, and these private schools are not well monitored. The “voucher” movement in some states further blurs the line between “private schools” and “public schools.” So, despite the title of this book, the issue may well be alive for your region too--even if you don’t live anywhere near the South. Nevertheless, the vast majority of child battery, in both private and public schools, occurs in the South. | | Private schools can basically do “whatever they want” to children in many states. If they specify that children can be spanked by hand or paddle, there is nothing legally prohibiting a male teacher from pulling a teen girl’s underwear down for a “bare butt” hand spanking, even though parents often don’t realize this as they read the “code words” in the handbook. Even though institutional employees do not love the children, and have no incestuous taboo to keep them from sexually abusing them if they get the chance, they nonetheless often demand the “right” to spank “just like parents.” This, in the South especially, includes bare buttocks and naked spanking, since parents in these locales are not legally bothered when they do those things. Institutions of any types are far different than families. There is no genuine love or care for the child that we expect to find in the home, and the staff are “professional” people supposedly—not just humans who “made a baby.” Child care institutions should be much more highly regulated, especially in areas like spanking, paddling, and videotaping naked beatings, that relate to physical abuse, sexual abuse, and child pornography, than “biological accident” parents are. They are supposedly trained and should know better. | | Laws on private schools have historically been loose since parents could legally abuse children in many of the same ways, and the private schools received no public funding. The voucher movement once again will call into question the state’s need to monitor and regulate a service it is substantially paying for. In any case, regardless of who is paying for childcare, there are some things that the state simply should not allow to be done to children because of the tremendous social harm that results. Rape is one area where a person’s religion, or who is paying, is not a factor. We know it is harmful and we don’t allow it. Beating children should fall into the same category, and children should be protected from it in every venue. There’s a “whole lotta hitten goin on” to the most helpless members of our society with our complete ignorance and blindness. Much of it sounds more like the plot to a porno movie than childcare. | |
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